Alkaline Water Filter - Fact or Crap?

Discussion in 'Adrian Wong' started by Adrian Wong, Jan 23, 2010.

  1. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Water filters are most interesting subjects. Many people I know are obsessed with what's in our water. Some refuse to "reboil" water as it would destroy the proper structure of water and/or cause it to turn toxic.

    Ironically, some of them worry about "cancer-causing chemicals" in our water while continuing to puff 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day. That's like worrying about getting hit by a car when a truck is about to mow you down. :rolleyes:

    Recently, I came upon an "article" in Star Property about alkaline water. It's listed as an article but frankly speaking, it's really an advertorial. However, I can't help noticing how freely these advertorial spew pseudo-science mumbo-jumbo as facts. Check it out :

    Let me tackle this point by point....

    First of all, I'm no chemist but there's no such thing as "Oxidizing Reducing Potential". It's really Oxidation / Reduction Potential. But we will forgive their "typo"...

    More importantly, the article claims that the more alkaline a liquid is, the better it is for your body. To that, I have only one thing to tell the author - I challenge you to drink just a cup of lye. It's very alkaline, I assure you. If you are right, then it will be extremely beneficial for your body. But if I'm right, you will not survive this highly-alkaline drink unless you get medical help real quick.

    Yay! We found the cause of all our problems. Just drink alkaline water and we will not have to worry about cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis and heart disease. Seriously, if that was true, the government would have made our water alkaline to save on the HUGE budget required every year to run our hospitals.

    Unfortunately, the claim of "acute acid content in one's body" as the source of our woes is nonsense. Our body has to remain within a VERY narrow pH range of 7.35~7.45. Going beyond this range damages our cells. That is a fact.

    What's also a fact is that there is no such thing as an acute acid content in your body, unless you drink highly acidic solutions like hydrochloric acid or inject it into your bloodstream. Our body automatically corrects any shift in the pH level, unless it's rapidly overwhelmed by such a large influx of acid. In other words, unless you are looking to commit suicide, you are unlikely to experience such a problem.

    Ahhh.. If you can create acid from pollution, stress and bad lifestyle, you can also create gold out of lead. So what gives???

    First of all, most mineral water are slightly acidic, due to the mineral content, with pH levels of 5.7 to 7 (neutral).

    Secondly, vitamin C is an acid (L-ascorbic acid), so how the heck can vitamin C keep you alkalized??? In fact, vitamin C can be used to make your urine acidic to treat urinary tract infections.

    Thirdly, if you claim that negative ORP numbers are alkaline and positive ORP numbers are acidic, with 0 as neutral, then purified water should have an ORP of 0! If you paid more attention in your basic science class in school, you would have remembered that pure water is neutral in pH... :roll:

    What the heck is "active hydrogen"? Do you mean the regular hydrogen are not active??? :think:

    Again, by your definition, the Shimono Antioxidant Alkaline water with its ORP level of 250 would be acidic, wouldn't it?

    Wow! What a miraculous water filter! It literally claims to be a mini version of the Fountain of Youth!

    I have no doubts that alkaline water can neutralize acid (at least some of it). However, what acidic toxins are they talking about? And what about alkaline toxins? Wouldn't alkaline water make them worse???

    The other claims are just too ridiculous to bother refuting. Where are the studies to show that alkaline water can emulsify fat, speed up metabolism, maintain skin elasticity, eliminate free radicals and clear up your body's toxins???

    For your information, mildly alkaline water produced by such filters are absorbed by the body like normal water. Such water is only made alkaline by the presence of contaminants like mineral ions in the water, and the process of electrolysis. However, such water has NO effect on your body whatsoever.

    Your body will just absorb the water and minerals as it would any normal mineral water, and then dispose of the excess via the usual routes (urine, stools, sweat). The net effect = absolutely nothing at all. Your blood will not become more alkaline in nature (thankfully!!!), and neither will it emulsify any fat in your spare tyres and love handles.

    If you bought a machine like this one, well, the good news is it probably works well as a water filter but that's about it. Just don't believe their mumbo-jumbo or you may end up killing yourself drinking lye...

    Addendum

    Our stomachs contain very strong acids. All the better to break down proteins and pesky bacteria. So whatever mildly alkaline water you drink will get neutralized in the stomach. So much for being absorbed by our intestines! :haha: :haha:

    Also, if you want to create alkaline water on the cheap (without buying such ridiculously expensive water filters), just dissolve some baking soda into your drinking water. You may not enjoy the taste though... :haha:

    Update @ 6 August, 2010 : A family friend sent me this :

     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2010
  2. Papercut

    Papercut Newbie

    :haha:

    Having done media relations with some of the papers in Malaysia, I can tell you it's so easy to get a company's messages published under the pretext of "content" :roll:
     
  3. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    LOL!! I can believe that!

    Any juicy examples you can tell us? :D
     
  4. PsYkHoTiK

    PsYkHoTiK Admin nerd

    Will this water help drop temps further in my watercooling loop?

    /Sarcasm

    Haha I have a RO/DI filter in the house that I'll be using for my loop now... :p
     
  5. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Oh no, it will promote corrosion in the loop! No Sarcasm!
     
  6. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Another thing I forgot to mention is this...

    Our stomachs contain very strong acids. All the better to break down proteins and pesky bacteria. So whatever mildly alkaline water you drink will get neutralized in the stomach. So much for being absorbed by our intestines! :haha: :haha:

    Also, if you want to create alkaline water on the cheap (without buying such ridiculously expensive water filters), just dissolve some baking soda into your drinking water. You may not enjoy the taste though... :haha:
     
  7. jamotto

    jamotto Newbie

    This is the miracle cure for ketoacidosis :roll:

    I just need this water filter! :doh:
     
  8. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    How does the "alkaline" water filter works anyway?

    But, a clean water supply which is to be drank should be more important right?
     
  9. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    I'm not sure how this particular filter works, but most "alkaline" water filter require the presence of some kind of contaminant in the water - usually mineral ions. So, they will never produce pure water, if that's what you are looking for.

    Of course, some minerals in the water is actually good. However, we really don't know what they are using to produce free ions, which they require for the electrolysis of water to split the water into slightly alkaline and slightly acidic fractions. For the details, we really need a chemist. :haha: :haha:

    But from what I understand, electrolysis requires a LOT of electrical power. So most of these "alkaline" water filters cannot really produce alkaline water of significant strength.
     
  10. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    And furthermore, they can't just "dump" ions (especially metal) into the water to make it alkaline right? Is it going to work anyway?

    Certain kind of metal ions that are found in plants are colloidal which means that they are absorbable by living organisms after/during digestion.

    On top of that, my father once bought a small nutrition book from a flea market in Brisbane. Inside, it stated that eating meat will turn the food compounds (?) into acidic, thus causing discomforts and problems, while eating vegetables will turn the food compounds (?) into alkaline, which will supposedly 'balance' up the acididity in the body. I might check the book again as this information is pretty confusing. :faint:

    Again, what are your opinions?
     
  11. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    No, it will just be ionized water or mineral water (if they are using minerals ions).

    Well, I can only say that's utter nonsense. Whatever you eat will get dumped into a very acidic soup in your stomach. They will then be neutralized by bile and pancreatic juices when they enter your small intestine.
     
  12. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Just updated the first post with a message on alkaline diet from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Enjoy! :D
     
  13. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    These subjects always bring in the kooks. I welcome criticisms and help at correcting any mistakes I may have made, but I just can't stand it when someone starts using God like a baton.

    Check this out... It started out of the blue with this e-mail :

    I replied :

    He then replied :

    What the...??? Now you bring Jesus into the argument? And answer me with more (unrelated and irrelevant) questions??? :nuts: So I replied :

    Someone else in the discussion then cut in :

    He probably received other admonishments because he dropped everyone on the list and started mailing me direct :

    Oh man, he still can't stop it...

    I thought that was the end of it, but no... he had to continue!!!

    He's a real piece of work... I fired off this last shot, hoping fervently that he will leave me alone :

    Will I succeed? Or will he continue to whack me with Jesus Christ to win the argument? I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
     
  14. patriciaa

    patriciaa Newbie

    I am thinking of getting Water filter for cleaning the rain water, either for domestic use, agriculture purpose. There are several types of water filters. Which one is best for cleaning rainwater?
     
  15. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    If it's just for agriculture purpose, a simple particle filter would do.
     
  16. whitegoh

    whitegoh Newbie

    any idea about the negative ion garments???
     
  17. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    If you wade through the pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo, you will see that they are making those clothes from PVC. Yes, the same PVC used in cheap sofas and raincoats.

    The idea is that it will generate negative ions or static... presumably by rubbing one part of the PVC garment against another part. Otherwise, you get nothing. The garment itself cannot auto-generate negative ions.

    However, even if you do generate static... you get nothing but dust stuck to the garment. I guess you can think of it as a way to filter the air around you, but honestly, it will just turn you into a giant duster! :haha: :haha:
     
  18. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    It's amazing how people keep trying to fool us about alkaline water. People, we need to get the word out! Spread the word to your family and friends - alkaline water is all hocus-pocus!

    Guess who else is selling alkaline water filters? The infamous Jessie Ooi, who was seen shouting at Lim Guan Eng during the recent Lim Guan Eng - Chua Soi Lek debate. Here's the January 11, 2011 Star report on her company :

    Now, let me debunk her claims...

    1. Japan and South Korea had been using this technology for more than four decades.

    So what? My grandfather rode his bicycle for more than 60 years before he died. That doesn't make his bicycle any more superior than my car.

    And for a technology that claims to have been in the Japanese and South Korean market for over 40 years, it's surprising how you don't see alkaline water filters used by many Japanese or South Koreans. That's called FAILURE...

    2. “This ionised water is alkaline, which is good drinking water,’’ Ooi said.

    This is a stupid, illogical and irresponsible statement. Ionized water consists of both acidic and alkaline fractions. That means it can be either alkaline or acidic, after you create them via electrolysis.

    Also, if alkaline water is good drinking water, then we would all be quaffing lye. DON'T TRY THAT - lye is HIGHLY CORROSIVE and drinking lye will damage your oesophagus and gastrointestinal system, if it doesn't kill you!

    3. The water filters come in three models — S360w, S360p and S330s — and are priced from RM3,690 to RM4,390. Ooi said water filters now could be as expensive as RM25,000 but she tried to make her company’s products affordable so that the public could benefit from drinking healthy water.

    WTF??!! Those are some crazy expensive water filters you are selling there! Don't give us that holier than thou crap about making it cheap enough for the public to "benefit from drinking healthy water".

    FYI, healthy water is clean water that is not consumed excessively. Alkaline water is no healthier than regular water or even acidic water. When it hits your gastric juices, whatever little alkalinity is gone.

    Yes, there are water filters that cost more than RM 25,000. We have two of them at my condo - they are REGULAR filters serving the ENTIRE CONDO! Why don't you compare the price of copper with that of gold, or the price of a Proton versus the price of a Lamborghini?

    4. “Because we consume acidic food like bread, meat, sugar, egg yolk, cheese and liquor, we need a balance and drinking alkaline water will help maintain that balance.

    Fuh! So if we consume alkaline food, we must consume acidic water? What if we consume a combination of alkaline and acidic food? Do we first drink acidic water and then alkaline water? Or mix them both? I pity your science teacher - all his/her efforts were in vain.

    It doesn't matter whether our food is alkaline or acidic because it all goes into the stomach where STRONG hydrochloric acid reside. The alkaline water produced by ALL alkaline water filters are weak. Even if you drink a few liters at once, all of it will be neutralized in the stomach. No harm, but absolutely no effect, much less any gain.

    Also, our body is designed to maintain its pH within a VERY TIGHT range of 7.35 - 7.45. Why the hell would you want to change your body's self-regulated equilibrium? IDIOT.

    5. “I have sold more than 1,000 filters. There is a huge market and I hope to reach a target of selling 500 water filters a month.

    Of course, you would love to sell more filters. It's all about the MONEY, MONEY, MONEY.

    6. “I am hoping to reach beyond home use. I plan to approach hospitals and offices, too,” she added.

    That's marketing talk. Yes, you plan to approach hospitals. That doesn't mean you will actually do it. I'm VERY CONFIDENT you will never find a single hospital using any alkaline water filter. That's because we all know - these damn things HAVE NO EFFECT!
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2012
  19. Annie

    Annie Newbie

    OK...but what about filtering?

    Hi-
    I came across this thread while looking for info on alkalizing water. Glad I found this before I wasted my money. Thanks.

    But although ionizers are a waste of money, this doesn't mean filters are though right?

    I've been wanting to filter the kitchen sink water for a while now, but again don't want to waste my money on something that doesn't work or that claims to do more than it really does.

    Can you suggest/recommend a good one that is also inexpensive. I'm just looking to filter the kitchen sink water for drinking.

    Thanks.
     
  20. ZuePhok

    ZuePhok Just Started

    haha.. this is funny. this miss ooi.. her body is actually smarter than the person. at least it knows how to self-regulate. :haha: :haha: :haha:

    I hear this everyday. Uncles, aunties, even my mother called me last week to talk about this. I don't why malaysian's money so easy to "tipu". :wall: :wall:
     

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